GENESIS xiii. 1-9.
There is nothing more divisive than wealth. As families grow rich their
members frequently become alienated. It is rarely, indeed, that love
increases with the increase of riches. Luxurious possessions appear to be
a forcing-bed in which the seeds of sleeping vices waken into strength.
For one thing, selfishness is often quickened with success. Plenty, as
well as penury, can "freeze the genial currents of the soul." And with
selfishness comes a whole brood of mean and petty dispositions. Envy comes
with it, and jealousy, and a morbid sensitiveness which readily leaps into
strife.
So do our possessions multiply our temptations. So does the bright day
"bring forth the adder." So do we need extra defences when "fortune smiles
upon us." But our God can make us proof against "the fiery darts" of
success. Abram remained unscathed in "the garish day." The Lord delivered
him from "the destruction that wasteth at noonday." His wealth increased,
but it was not allowed to force itself between his soul and God. In the
midst of all his prosperity, he dwelt in "the secret place of the Most
High," and he abode in "the shadow of the Almighty."
Be the first to react on this!
John Henry Jowett was born in Halifax, England in 1864. Jowett's father had arranged for him to begin working as a clerk for a lawyer in Halifax, but the encouragement of his Sunday school teacher, Mr. Dewhirst, turned Jowett's heart toward the ministry.
After theological training at Edinburgh and Oxford, Jowett assumed the pastorate of the Saint James Congregational Church. His six effective years of ministry brought him to the attention of the Carr's Lane Church in Birmingham, England, on the death of their pastor. For the next fifteen years the church grew and prospered. Their pastor's vision led them to increase their efforts to bring people to Christ. In 1917, the mayor of Birmingham said the church had changed the town with "crime and drunkenness having decreased."
Jowett came to America for the first time in 1909 to address the Northfield Conference founded by D. L. Moody. While in America he preached twice at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. The church immediately asked him to come as its pastor. Jowett refused, having received a petition, signed by more than 1,400 members of his church in England, begging him to stay. The Fifth Avenue Church called him again, and then a third time. Finally Jowett concluded that this was God's leading for his life. He assumed the pastorate in 1911.
Although his preaching style was not dynamic (he read all of his sermons), the depth of his knowledge, the clarity of his language, and the power of his life commanded respect. Attendance at the church which had dropped to 600 on Sunday morning rose to 1,500. Lines up to half a block long formed, waiting for unclaimed seats. Jowett began preparing his Sunday sermons on Tuesday, following a meticulously detailed schedule.
When G. Campbell Morgan resigned the Westminster Chapel in London in 1917, Dr. Jowett once again crossed the ocean to take a new church. This would be his final pastorate. Declining health forced him to give up preaching in 1922, and his death in 1923 took from the world one of its most gifted and dedicated preachers.